Chapter 51 A Shocking Discovery: Have You Seen Him Before? ...
Ji Xingyang's cry of "Mother!" was like a thunderclap from a clear sky, eliciting a chorus of shouts.
Guan Wangzhen, who was locked in a fierce battle with Shi Jinle, raising clouds of dust, immediately shouted, "I knew it! He called you back then, and you're blaming me! I'll definitely tell those two later!"
Shi Jinle's gauze fan danced with dazzling light, but she seemed startled and her voice was slightly unsteady as she exclaimed, "You have a child? It doesn't matter, the next one is the best, look at me, look at me!"
Fu Daolan covered his head and muttered to Shao Qingshang in a withdrawn manner, "Do you think our brother Tianxing can still join this family? He doesn't seem to be in good condition. Will he be able to handle it?"
Shao Qingshang covered Fu Daolan's mouth: "Say less, say less, sigh!"
Ji Mingran's head was buzzing from Ji Xingyang's wailing as he clung to her legs. She grabbed the tuft of yellow hair on his head, forcing him to look up and carefully examine his thick face. This time, she was very certain: "I don't know you. Don't shout nonsense."
Three feet away, the two who were fighting fiercely, raising clouds of dust, suddenly stopped and turned to fly towards each other.
"Alright, another scoundrel trying to manipulate people's minds." Guan Wangzhen kicked him. "If you're going to have a fair and square competition, why are you two making trouble and ruining my reputation, Granny Ming?"
Ji Xingyang released his grip in time and leaned back to avoid the attack, but the next second he lunged at Ji Mingran again.
Shi Jinle rushed to Ji Mingran's side a moment earlier, hurriedly pulling her away from Ji Xingyang, and said with a serious face: "Where did you get the shamelessness to claim mother as your own the first thing you said when you met her?"
"You started by advocating dual cultivation in your second sentence, what right do you have to criticize others?" Guan Wangzhen threw a Sinking Earth spell at Shi Jinle and Ji Xingyang, turning the sand beneath their feet into a swampy mud pit, dragging them down.
Seeing that more and more participants were gathering here, and that there were more variables in seizing the key to the illusion, Ji Mingran decided that it would be better to cooperate with the Void Sect, which he had known in the small world, rather than cooperating with the unfamiliar Hehuan Sect and Nameless Sect. Moreover, they needed to set off as soon as possible. Without saying a word, Ji Mingran returned to his teammates.
Ji Xingyang struggled to pull himself out of the swamp, two streams of hot tears flowing from his round eyes. His muddy hands kept wiping away the tears, leaving mottled mud stains on his face. He cried out, "I recognized you at a glance, but doesn't Mother remember me?"
“I am Ji Xingyang. My father said that this is the surname given to me by my mother. He gave me my given name. The middle character comes from his name, and the last character contains my mother's name. It means to walk under the light. Does my mother not remember me when she hears my name? Oh no, I am not loved by my father or mother. There is such a pitiful child as me in the world.”
Just as he can curse someone without taking a breath, Ji Xingyang also has the ability to cry and rattle off a string of words without stopping.
Ji Mingran was so deeply impressed by Ji Xingyang's outburst of cursing Hongqizong that even now, as Ji Xingyang was weeping and wailing, Ji Mingran felt no emotion whatsoever.
Even if she couldn't remember people, she wouldn't forget what she had done; she had never given the child a surname.
Shi Jinle gritted his teeth: "Good heavens, her name has three characters. The first character was chosen by her, the last character is also related to her, and she puts her own character in the middle. Is she thinking that she is surrounded by her?"
She glared angrily at Guan Wangzhen and Ji Xingyang. First there was the red-haired guy blocking her way, then there was the scheming yellow-haired guy's father. It turned out that the dual cultivation partner chosen by her master and whom she also had her eye on was a hot commodity, and everyone wanted a bite.
When it comes to finding a partner, the Hehuan Sect will never admit defeat!
Shi Jinle pressed down on Ji Xingyang's head with one hand, pushing him into the swamp. He then used his magic to climb out of the swamp and clean his clothes.
Having witnessed the series of events, Fu Daolan opened and closed his mouth repeatedly before finally saying, "Sigh, she doesn't even acknowledge her own child. Mingran is quite ruthless. No wonder Brother Tianxing is so cold and broken."
"Say less," Shao Qingshang said irritably. "Who knows if it's true or not? Fellow Daoist Ji didn't admit it. Besides, he's always treated us this way, so what's the difference?"
"You were the one who said she had a child first, and now you're the one saying she doesn't. You've said it all." Fu Daolan muttered indignantly, "There is a difference. Brother Tianxing used to be cold and indifferent, but he's different."
"Is that what I meant?" Shao Qingshang didn't want to talk to her friend anymore: "Is it the same thing?"
The crowd gathered around the earthen mound, each busy with their own tasks, unaware that a shadow was quietly approaching from the ground.
"Come here!" the girl called out in a low voice, which made Shao Qingshan turn his head. When he turned around, he met two sinister pupils printed on the white paper.
The paper figures, which should have stood quietly on either side, had somehow silently moved closer to the two of them.
Fu Daolan also turned around alertly because of Ji Mingran's whisper. He was so frightened by the paper effigy right in front of him that he jumped up on the spot and screamed. In his panic, he instinctively hugged his companion standing next to him.
"Let me go!" Shao Qingshang gritted his teeth. "They are still being controlled." In this illusion, he must stay at least a foot away from Fu Daolan! Otherwise, if he encounters any more evil spirits, he might be seriously injured by that big idiot first.
Fu Daolan's face turned pale. Sure enough, the two paper figures trembled slightly in place, and the four black holes that exuded evil intent vaguely showed signs of struggle.
Indeed, he was under control. He turned to look at Ji Mingran. The girl, who always had a smile on her lips, was now solemn. She held her hands in a hand seal and leaned back slightly, as if she were wrestling with two paper figures and pulling on their movements.
"Thank you, sister!" Fu Daolan said, drawing a heavy sword from her waist and slashing horizontally. The two paper figures instantly turned to dust. Shao Qingshang, holding a long flute, played a tune that caused the dust to vanish without a trace.
“It would be best to purify these evil creatures,” Shao Qing said. “However, they are just ordinary ghosts with very low cultivation levels, so they shouldn’t dare to approach us.”
Although they didn't know what Ji Mingran was controlling them for, the ghosts were weak and didn't need to be bothered with. This was also why everyone completely ignored the two strange paper figures.
But if Ji Mingran hadn't noticed the ghostly fluctuations while he was controlling them, none of them might have known that they had been approached by ghosts.
That shouldn't be the case.
“Probably because,” Ji Mingran said, “we’re getting close to the black mist.”
Black mist? They were clearly several miles apart. Shao Qingshang quickly looked up and was stunned.
Shi Jinle and Ji Xingyang, who were struggling in the swamp, also stopped.
The eerie, inky fog was no more than a hundred meters away from them.
The black mist was approaching them.
“No, that’s not right.” Guan Wangzhen squatted down, his fingertips lightly touching the barren mud, and frowned. “It’s because we came here that the soil is different from what we saw before.”
Having just escaped the swamp, Shi Jinle stopped in place, summoned his magical weapon, and became alert and on guard.
The hoarse cawing of crows, like a human voice, broke the silence.
Countless black dots flew out of the fog, the black fog soaking into the night sky, making them difficult to distinguish. However, the people present were cultivators with keen senses. Upon closer inspection, they realized that they were all decaying crows, with withered feathers and scarlet eyes, spewing out thick black fog from their mouths.
The pile of bones ahead moved on its own, rolling and tumbling, forming one humanoid skeleton after another, rushing toward us in a dark, surging mass.
Even the sound of the wind turned into mournful howls, overlapping and rising in layers, making their eardrums ache and their heads throb. Looking up, they saw that the air was filled with wandering ghosts and fierce spirits, one on top of another, surrounding them tightly.
The skull, with its remaining blackened, foul-smelling flesh and bones, gaped open and emitted a low "ho, ho, ho" sound.
"Snap!" With a crisp striking sound, the skull of the corpse suddenly flew out, drawing an extremely beautiful arc in the air. When it reached mid-air, the ghosts and vengeful spirits howled mournfully and swarmed up, eagerly devouring it. In the blink of an eye, they had eaten the head clean.
"Snap!" A withered hand flew into the air.
"Snap!" The remaining withered hand also flew into the air.
The earthen mound was no longer moving, and it was as quiet as if no strange, mutated corpse had ever emerged.
Ji Mingran stomped his foot, making sure the ground was firmly in his skin, and said, "This place is pretty eerie."
......
......
......
The other cultivators hesitated to speak.
"You're playing ball!" Guan Wangzhen complained. "Stand still, they're coming!"
He was referring to the countless vengeful ghosts in mid-air, the army of skeletons not far away, and the sky full of rotting corpses and crows.
As if receiving a unified command, they all accelerated together and rushed towards us at an astonishing speed.
First came the ghostly spirits right before my eyes, their translucent shadows whipping up eerie, ghostly winds, their screams piercing my very soul.
Shi Jinle clicked his tongue lightly, his gauze fan spinning, radiating light. The sixteen bells attached to the fan ribs rang in unison, and a refreshing fragrance spread with the ethereal sound of the bells. An invisible spiritual pressure surged violently, causing the first wave of ghosts and vengeful spirits that had rushed to the top of the cultivators to freeze in place. They then roared and turned to charge at the second wave of ghosts and vengeful spirits that followed closely behind, tearing and fighting each other in mid-air.
The fragrance filled their nostrils, and the stinging pain in their spiritual senses lessened.
Once again, the bells rang, and the second wave of ghostly spirits was swept away by the spiritual pressure. Half of the ghostly figures froze in the air, then turned and swooped down towards the rotting corpse crows not far away.
Hehuan Valley is most skilled at controlling minds, affecting no one, whether human, god, ghost, or demon.
On the other side, Fu Daolan rushed towards the skeleton army, his heavy sword slashing with immense force, sweeping forward. The white bones emitting black energy collapsed with a crash. Shao Qing played his flute, the melody melodious, and the black energy that had accumulated from the collapsing skeletons gradually dissipated.
But the skeletons surged in relentlessly, one wave after another, and as soon as one wave was cut down, a new one would surge in.
The ghostly spirits and vengeful ghosts, now under control, lunged at the rotting corpse crows, only to be swallowed up by the dense, dark shadows as if they had vanished into thin air.
The black fog was approaching, at least ten meters away.
The cultivators felt increasingly heavy.
Ji Mingran dragged her cane among the crowd, leaving scratches on the ground as she walked.
"Grandma Ming." Guan Wangzhen stretched leisurely, having been stretching and loosening his muscles since the beginning. "No need to exert yourself. This is all yin energy released by vengeful spirits. The yin energy is too heavy, so evil spirits abound. My Fire Phoenix Clan is no match for mere yin energy."
"This illusion's Achilles' heel is easily within reach."
Guan Wangzhen's body emitted a fiery red light, which became increasingly dazzling. A scorching heat wave surged, as if a great flame had ignited on the spot. A three-person-high lotus flower of fire bloomed, and a fiery red phoenix flew out with a whooshing cry.
"Go and come back soon." Guan Wangzhen's voice came from the phoenix.
Ji Mingran had just arrived at the edge of the swamp and was about to apply some mud to reinforce the ground patterns when he witnessed the scene before him, and his jaw almost dropped.
"Bird, birdman?!"
She didn't sense any fluctuations in the spiritual power of the transformation spell, so was Guan Wangzhen a bird or a human?
"Mother."
The cane, resting on the swampy mud, was pulled down by gravity, and Ji Mingran looked down at the hand holding the cane.
The little boy, his face covered in mud, looked up and said, "I can protect you too."
His body also emitted a dazzling golden light, like the light of dawn piercing through the darkness. Above the mud, golden lotuses bloomed, and golden-winged birds spread their wings and took flight, following the fire phoenix, flying towards the black mist.
Another one.
Ji Mingran was stunned. As the golden-winged bird flew by, its soft belly feathers brushed against her hair, and the yellowish-white belly suddenly evoked a sense of familiarity in her.
Her old food supplies, little yellow chicks, were just this fluffy.
Little chick... Little Ji?
“Brother Tianxing used to be cold and indifferent, but he’s different now.”
......
The flute melody drifted on and on as Fu Daolan slashed and hacked, trying to break through the pile of skeletons surrounding him, his heart filled with anxiety.
Shao Qingshang is being entangled by three rotting corpse demons that crawled out of the ground, and he is afraid he will not be able to hold on!
The skeleton turned to ashes with his blade. Before the black energy could reconnect the ashes to restore the skeleton, he hurriedly ran towards the source of the flute's sound.
The flute fell to the ground, and Shao Qingshang was indeed bound by the demon and could not move. The demon opened its mouth and began to bite at his head.
A slender girl suddenly appeared out of thin air, swiftly slashing through three demons with her sword, flipping and slinging them heavily into a pile of skeletons behind her.
As if sensing something, she turned around, as if waiting for Fu Daolan to come over, and asked:
Have you met Yu Tianxing?
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